By Athena Papakosta

With the new cycle of tension in the Middle East closing, until further notice, since after the Israeli retaliatory tone both from Israel but mainly from Iran, a regional war may have been avoided, but Israel’s revenge in Gaza continues, with the tension to remain in the north of the country and, at the same time, to hit red in the West Bank as well.

“In the coming days, we will increase our political and military pressure against Hamas. This is the only way to bring back our hostages and achieve victory. We will deliver more and more painful strikes against Hamas…soon.”

With the above words, the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu returns the international community’s gaze back to the drama of the Gaza Strip, where at dawn on Sunday at least 22 people were killed after new strikes by the Israeli Armed Forces in the southernmost city of the Palestinian enclave. Rafa. Among the victims were 18 children.

At the same time, however, the tension is rising steeply in the West Bank as well.

As the Israeli army claims, two Palestinians, brothers, aged 18 and 19, were killed when they tried, with a knife and a gun, to attack a checkpoint in Hebron. At the same time, at least 14 are dead from the extensive Israeli raid on the camp in the Nur Shams area, where 10 Israeli soldiers and a policeman were injured, while, in a separate incident, an Israeli was injured when – as captured in a video that is making the rounds of the Internet – kicked an explosive-laden Palestinian flag into a field.

Back in Israel, the cordon is tightening around Benjamin Netanyahu as for another night citizens took to the streets to demand elections and a deal with Hamas to release the hostages.

However, Israel’s political and military leadership remains focused on the country’s north and the border with Lebanon, where tension with Hezbollah since the start of the war remains in the red. In fact, on Sunday evening, the representative of the Israeli Armed Forces, Vice Admiral Daniel Hagari, announced that the country’s army will be deployed along the entire length of its borders.

Already in the United States, the House of Representatives has given the green light for the 26.4 billion dollars in military aid to Israel, with the American president, Joe Biden, now calling on the Senate to vote on the bill.

Sharp was the reaction of Hamas, which spoke of “confirmation of American complicity and cooperation in the war of extermination” against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

It was preceded by the meeting of the leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Istanbul, where the Turkish president expressed the assessment that one day Israel will pay the price of the oppression it exerts on the Palestinians and Haniyeh himself in a rare televised appearance interview to emphasize that “the position of the United States is misleading”.

Today, the president of Turkey is expected to visit Iraq for the first time in 12 years, confirming to analysts that he is vying for a role on the Middle East front, while early last night, for the first time since February, rockets were launched from Iraqi territory. against an American military base in Syria.